Eircom and Perlico

[HelenQ]

I switched my phone to Perlico last September.

I found I was getting bills every month which did irk me somewhat and to be honest I didnt think I was saving money.

Anyway on Monday discovered my phone was down. Logged fault with Perlico who said they would ring me back with an update.

Tuesday morning came still no phone and rang Perlico again to be told the line came back green when tested. But of course I didn't know that cos I got no call back as promised.

It is now Saturday and still dont have my phone and eventually was told by a very nice gentleman in Eircom that it will be fixed on Monday morning (will wait and see)

However I am absolutely disgusted with Perlico. They never call back when they say they will, and are only reading from a script. It seems that it can take 2 to 5 days to repair a fault and its not that urgent until it goes over 5 working days.

I am so mad with both Perlico and Eircom who are also dragging their heels in fixing the line.

Its so fustrating that as consumers we have absolutely no rights and they still expect us to pay for a service that we were without.

As for broadband in my area it will be 2020 by the time it gets to us.

H

 

[Sn@kebite]

Well that's the monopoly in this country, there's no competition.

You could try satellite broadband?


(personally i would see no point in having a landline if it didn't have broadband, i would just use a mobile 'cause landlines lead to all sorts of problems^^)

 

[Ciadan]

I had unbelievable problems with 'double billing' when I switched from Eircom to Perlico. My Perlico bill every month showed that I was being charged for Broadband by them (correct) but they were also charging me for Eircom dial-up. It took MONTHS of unanswered phonecalls, emails and eventually a complaint to ComReg before they eventually stopped charging me for Eircom dial-up. I'm still waiting on my refund...

 

[extopia]

Well that's the monopoly in this country, there's no competition.

No competition on the line rental, it's true. Lots of competition in the phone service market though.

You could try satellite broadband?

Very expensive indeed if you try to do this without a landline for the uplink.

 

[igloo]

Last June I changed over to Perlico, lured in by the culchie-friendly Free Talk anytime deal with free national calls. The first couple of bills did show significant saving for me. Bi-monthly eircom of 120 vs. monthly Perlico of 35-40 euro.

As payment is made by Direct Debit I hadn't really noticed that the amount charged to my bank account was creeping up over the past few months.

Today I accessed my bills via perlico.ie and rang to complain when I noticed that I was being charged for all national calls - bills had gone from 35-40 a month to about 65 euro...

I was told by the customer service rep that a 'computer glitch' had moved me last August to a different tariff and that I would be put back on the FreeTalk straight away. When I asked about a refund I was told that a case request would be put together but no guarantee I would be refunded..

Assuming the Regulator audits this company I expect they will find a lot of improvements for them to consider.

 

[amgd28]

I had similar frustrations with Eircom and another small operator, which annoyed me completely.
I actually got rid of the DSL phone line, and got my broadband thru NTL cable (may not be available in your area). For my landline, I set myself up with Blueface.ie - I paid about 80 for the modem, and able to use normal phone. Got a normal number, free local and national calls for 6 months, and to be honest v cheap after that. Not sure what current tarrifs they are charging as I am on a business account now with them. I'm sure there are other providers in the same space. Its great because you can manage your account on line, divert phone line as and when required, get emailed your voicemail...
Have to say I felt great when calling eircom to disconnect the traditional DSL phone line service!